1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a device and a method for administration of identifying characteristics. The invention relates in particular to a device and a method for creating and/or changing identifying characteristics.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to control the access of people to systems such as personal computers, computer networks, buildings, rooms, and the like, identifying characteristics such as passwords, PIN numbers, biometric features or voice identifiers are frequently applied by means of the people concerned entering the identifying characteristic into the control device for identification purposes in order to gain access to a system (computer system, building access control system, etc.). As well as new identifying characteristics being created for each new user of the system, the identifying characteristics must also be changed from time to time for security reasons. Methods of creating and changing identifying characteristics are known. In those methods the user has the possibility of terminating his input at any time throughout the duration of input. The new identifying characteristic entered is only checked when the input is terminated by the user. The new identifying characteristic is also frequently entered twice, in order to avoid unintentional incorrect input or biometric recognition errors, referred to collectively in the following as input errors. Here, too, the identifying characteristics are only checked when both identifying characteristics have been entered and the input is terminated by the user. If the new identifying characteristic does not meet certain pre-defined criteria, the attempted access fails. Likewise, input errors—that is to say, unintentional or technically based differences between the newly created identifying characteristic and its repetition—also result in failure. These failures generally produce error messages. They may additionally result in the user's access rights being barred. This represents a severe restriction of user-friendliness in the creation and changing of identifying characteristics.